A Beginner’s Guide to Riding a Dirt Bike

If you've recently purchased your first dirt bike, you may be wondering; how exactly do I ride this? Despite what you may think, a dirt bike isn’t really similar to a bicycle, scooter, or motorcycle and has very unique controls. To help you learn some of the basics of dirt bike riding we’ve written up this helpful guide below!

Gear 

Learning to ride a dirt bike can be tricky, and you’ll need to have a few pieces of important safety gear on hand before you get started. Your most important riding accessory will be your helmet, so be sure to grab one from a high-quality manufacturer. Padding for your elbows, knees, and chest will also be extremely helpful while learning to ride your dirt bike. If you aren’t interested in buying individual pads, feel free to grab some of the riding clothes available that come with padding already sewn in.

Getting Started

If you’ve never started a dirt bike before, it’s not the easiest process. To begin, you’ll first need to flip on the battery switch or turn your ignition key into the start position. Next, fully turn the clutch on your left handlebar all the way toward you while stomping on your gear shift pedal. You’ll need to start your dirt bike while it’s in first gear, so you’ll need to push the pedal down into the very last shift. Without letting go of the clutch, go ahead and start pushing down on your model’s kick-start lever until it roars to life. Or, if your model has a push-to-start button, you can go ahead and press it once the bike is in the correct gear—just remember not to let go of the clutch when you do. 

Driving Tips

When you’re ready to move forward, you’ll want to slowly release the clutch at the same time you begin to engage the throttle. To speed up, simply turn the throttle inward or gently release it to slow down. If you’d like to come to a complete stop, you’ll need to turn the clutch while releasing the throttle, then engage your foot brake. Until you have a bit more practice riding your dirt bike, we advise you to avoid the hand brakes. These brakes will bring you to a much quicker stop and may result in falling over the handlebars if you’re driving too fast. 

While these few steps may not seem like much, they’ll require quite a bit of practice to master. For both your safety and the safety of your dirt bike, we encourage you to take things slowly. If you do end up damaging your bike and require a repair, feel free to visit our service center here in Lewis Center, Ohio. We staff a large number of skilled technicians here at Motorcycle Maxx and proudly serve the nearby cities of both Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.